Christy Clark announces Massey Tunnel to be replaced by bridge

A rendering of a new bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel between Delta (on right in photo) and Richmond. Premier Christy Clark announced Friday that construction on the project will begin in 2017.Handout
/ B.C. Government

Trucks and cars move through the Massey Tunnel. Premier Christy Clark announced Friday her government will replace the congested George Massey Tunnel on Highway 99 with a bridge.Arlen Redekop
/ Vancouver Sun

Trucks and cars move through the Massey Tunnel in Richmond, B.C., July 3, 2012. Premier Christy Clark announced Friday her government will replace the congested George Massey Tunnel on Highway 99 with a bridge.Arlen Redekop
/ PNG

The existing George Massey Tunnel has insufficient capacity. Premier Christy Clark announced Friday her government will replace the congested George Massey Tunnel on Highway 99 with a bridge.Arlen Redekop
/ Vancouver Sun

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METRO VANCOUVER — The George Massey Tunnel is being replaced with a new bridge the provincial government says will eliminate one of the worst road and marine traffic bottlenecks in British Columbia.

Construction on the new bridge over the south arm of the Fraser River between Richmond and Delta will begin in 2017 and will trace the 56-year-old tunnel’s route, Premier Christy Clark said Friday.

But the impact of a new bridge on Highway 99 goes far beyond simply eliminating the long lines of rush-hour traffic for commuters who have fumed for decades as they queue up to enter the tunnel. Clark said the old tunnel represents a major impediment to commercial goods movement and the province’s Asia Pacific growth strategy.

Accompanying the bridge will be major improvements to Highway 99 from Bridgeport Road in Richmond clear to the Canada-U.S. border, according to Geoff Freer, the project’s executive director.

The tunnel’s removal will also return the Fraser River to a deepwater river capable of handling large-draft freighters.

For years, Port Metro Vancouver has cited the pre-built sectional tunnel’s shallow draft as a major impediment to expanding commercial river traffic. As a result, river port facilities such as Surrey Fraser Docks have been limited in what they can handle.

Freer said the new bridge will include high-occupancy vehicle and rapid-bus lanes, room for pedestrians and cyclists, and the potential for future rapid transit improvements. It will also tie into the soon-to-be-finished $1 billion South Fraser perimeter expressway, which will allow better movement of goods from the Trans-Canada Highway to Roberts Bank and the BC Ferries terminal.

Clark, who made the announcement at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver, said public consultations last year made it clear taxpayers want a bridge instead of a new tunnel, and that it has to go along the existing Highway 99 alignment.

“In 2017 we begin work on not just the worst bottleneck in the Lower Mainland, the worst bottleneck in British Columbia and across Canada as we work hard to get our goods to market,” Clark said. “The engineering and technical work for the bridge and associated improvements along Highway 99 have now begun. Promise made, promise kept.”

Freer said that there were no significant technical or engineering issues that would prevent the bridge from being built and that the ground is similar to that on which the Alex Fraser is built.

Pushing aside the message of fiscal restraint her government has made since the May election, Clark said B.C. has the ability to finance the bridge and related Highway 99 improvements, which she said would likely be in the same range as the nearly

$3 billion it spent on the new Port Mann Bridge and accompanying Trans-Canada Highway changes.

“We have a feel for how much it might cost and we are confident we can finance it but we are still working on those details,” she said.

Although Clark shied away from reporters’ questions over whether the bridge will be paid for through tolls, such plans are likely, since the two newest bridges the province built over the Fraser, the Port Mann and the Golden Ears, are tolled.

“It will have a toll, there’s no question about it,“ Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said. “But I am very, very pleased with that announcement right to the border. We have the second-largest border crossing in the country so the billions of dollars of goods that go across that border are significant and we need these improvements.”

Watts said she also wants assurances the project will be subject to a public referendum, since Clark has said other major Metro Vancouver transit and transportation projects should go to referendum.

“I think that this is an expansion of infrastructure and transportation, and we clearly heard during the (provincial) election that the expansion of transportation would go to a referendum,” Watts said. “So yes, I would expect that would go on to the upcoming referendum next year.”

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said that by itself the new bridge will do little to relieve congestion on Highway 99 and said he doesn’t believe it’s money well spent.

“What we need to know is the full story, the full plan, not just what is happening around that tunnel. You have a corridor from the south end of the tunnel to the north end of the Oak Street Bridge.

“By putting in a new bridge instead of a tunnel, you’re only dealing with a small part of the congestion. Coming northbound, you’ll get over that bridge faster than if you take the tunnel. Then you’ll hit the parking lot. You’re going to hit congestion. You’re going to stop. Unless there’s strategies to reduce the amount of traffic, you’re going to have congestion then as you do now.”

Brodie wants to see funding for more buses along the route and wants to see the port operating 24 hours a day to relieve congestion.

North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton, chairman of TransLink’s Mayors’ Council, said while nobody questions the need for a new bridge it should have been done within an overall integrated transportation plan.

“We fully support investing in transportation resources in the region and recognize Highway 99 is a key provincial highway artery.

“The concern we have is that we’ve been advocating an approach for all mobility in the region, goods movement, people movement and transit, and a critical part of regional mobility is that the more you keep commuters off the road, you’re freeing up capacity for goods movement.”

Walton said he doesn’t know why the new bridge plan was placed ahead of other transportation initiatives.

“To what extent was this project ranked against the others in terms of the region?” he asked. “I don’t know if a business plan was done — certainly I never heard of one — that would have ranked the preferability of a transit investment or even a joint investment of upgrading the tunnel and investing in transit at the same time.”

Clark, in her speech, did not indicate whether she would put the project to a referendum.

However, unlike other roads and bridges in Metro Vancouver, Highway 99 and the George Massey Tunnel are part of the provincial highway system and are not under TransLink’s jurisdiction.

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson was ecstatic about the announcement. Delta residents for years have suffered from the impacts of a clogged highway and tunnel system, she said.

“This is not just about eliminating a bottleneck. It will help traffic to the border, to the Tsawwassen First Nations’ developments, to the BC Ferries terminal,” she said.

“What I am hoping for is that it will also include possible room for a future rapid transit system to Delta and even to South Surrey and White Rock.”

Freer said the transportation ministry is aware of those needs and expects to include them in the bridge design. The work now underway will develop a project scope and business case for the bridge and highway corridor improvements, and will be presented to the public next spring, he said.

How the bridge will be funded is still undecided, but other stakeholders such as Port Metro Vancouver will be included in the discussions, he said.

“We absolutely believe we can get this ready so that we begin construction in the next four years,” Freer said.

The highways ministry said before bridge construction starts in 2017 it will lengthen the Steveston off-ramp on Highway 99 at the north end of the tunnel to improve safety and reduce congestion.

The new bridge proposal won immediate support from the business community, which had lobbied heavily in favour of replacing the tunnel during the province’s initial consultation phase.

The Vancouver Board of Trade cites Delta’s estimates that congestion along the Highway 99 corridor costs the provincial economy $66 million a year.

“The new bridge will alleviate congestion and traffic for commuters while bolstering trade and strengthening British Columbia’s role as Canada’s Gateway to the Pacific,” Board of Trade CEO Iain Black said in a statement.

“As a gateway, we would become more efficient in the sense that we would be utilizing an investment that is already not currently being used to capacity,” said Louise Yako, CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association.

She is also not opposed to the prospect of tolls.

“Nothing in life is free, so we expect to be paying,” Yako said, “whether that ends up being through a toll or some form of road pricing, or sitting in traffic and having to absorb congestion, we’re already paying.”

In a statement, Port Metro Vancouver CEO Robin Silvester said he supports the plan for a new bridge but gave no indication if the federal Crown corporation would be willing to share in the cost since it will reopen the river to deeper-draft vessels.

The B.C. government’s new commitment to replace the (tunnel) with a bridge supports Port Metro Vancouver’s top priorities for the crossing, including reducing the impact of port traffic on local communities, increasing efficiencies and ensuring long-term sustainability of the gateway,” he said.

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